One Nation Under the Commerce Clause

The bit in last year's health care reform about mandating that people buy health insurance will surely end up before the Supreme Court. But it is being used by Knight Kiplinger to editorialize in favor of a mandatory 401k system.

I'd like to see these practices and my other suggestions made universal. Some libertarians will argue that mandatory retirement saving, like mandatory health insurance, would be an imposition on their personal freedom. It sure would.

But absent a mandatory 401k system, those who don't plan for their own retirement will surely be a burden on compassionate others, whether family, friends or the government. And that's an irresponsible imposition on all of us.

The Commerce Clause. Is there anything it can't do?